Inside the Chaotic Early Years of the Isle of Wight Festival (1968-1970)

Breaking down the early years of the Isle of Wight Festival (1968-1970), which played host to Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, the Who, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson, and Jimi Hendrix

Title Image Credit: Stephen Goldblatt

‘We were in Italy and everyone was going to the Isle of Wight,’ said Jane Lawrence of Iowa, US, as she and hundreds of thousands of others made their way to the third Isle of Wight Festival located on a small island off the south coast of England. ‘Here we are. I’m confused. I’m a little scared. I hope it doesn’t rain.’¹

There was no rain that year. However, 1970 did see the end of the Isle of Wight Festival. It wasn’t until 2002, some 32 years later, that John Giddings, one of the attendees from that infamous 1970 festival, decided to bring it back.

Mismanagement, battles with local councillors, disgruntled fans, and major financial losses saw the festival’s original organisers, the Foulk brothers, wave goodbye to the event that hosted some of music’s biggest stars including Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, and lots more.

Here’s an aural history of the festival, told through quotes from the organisers, festival-goers, performers, and contemporary journalists.

1968: around 8000 people attended

‘That first event in 1968 was pretty shabby – the stage was a couple of flatbed trucks and the caterer ripped us off,’² says Ray Foulk, the Isle of Wight Festival’s co-founder along with his brothers, Ron and Bill.

‘[W]hen I was 22, my older brother Ronnie got a job as a fundraiser for a swimming pool on the island,’ continues Ray. ‘I’d done a concert for CND [the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament], so we started talking about doing some sort of festival to raise the money. My younger brother Bill suggested it had to be pop. An agency in London gave Ronnie a list of acts including the Pretty Things, the Move, Fairport Convention, Tyrannosaurus Rex and an American act, Jefferson Airplane. We only had a £750 investment from the Isle of Wight Indoor Swimming Pool Association, but after a friend lent us his £1,000 army pay-off, we managed to book all those bands, sell 10,000 tickets and break even. In the interim, the pool association pulled out because it didn’t like the publicity about hippies, drugs and sex, but they allowed us to use their investment and we were able to pay them back.’³

‘I used to buy the Melody Maker and New Musical Express papers, music papers of the day during that period in the ‘60s,’ says Roger Simmonds, the man who’s been to every Isle of Wight festival since the very beginning.

‘[I]n early 1968, I saw there was going to be a festival on the Isle of Wight […] and then I looked to see who was performing and I was quite amazed - Jefferson Airplane - and I thought they were a big, big American band at that time, and the thought of being able to see Jefferson Airplane was spectacular […] The first one really was nothing like we know it today […] Very primitive […] I got the train to Portsmouth, and then got across on the ferry to Ryde. Got to Ryde, […took the bus] and we ended up in this field in a place called Ford Farm, and the field was apparently called Hell Field...

We arrived on site and the field itself was surrounded by a perimeter of scaffolding with plastic sheeting over it. Again, very primitive for keeping security. But the other thing I was pleased that I took was a sleeping bag because it got quite cold at night, and quite a few people turned up in shirt sleeves - totally unprepared for a festival - [but] it was just this novel thing. So, luckily, I was able to climb in the sleeping bag and keep warm and watch the bands as they came to and fro. I think the highlights were clearly Jefferson Airplane who had this incredible light system - something we’d never really seen in the UK - and then the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. They had just had this huge hit…’⁴

Speaking with the Guardian about that huge hit, Arthur Brown recalls ‘In 1968 we’d just been at No 1 with ‘Fire’ when we were booked to headline a new festival. But then Jefferson Airplane said they would bring a phenomenal PA system from the US if they could top the bill, so we were bumped to headlining the “Great British groups”. In those days, crowds loved it if performers were drunk or doing extreme things. I would arrive on stage wearing a helmet with a pie dish on top filled with petrol and our lighting man would throw lit things at it until – whoosh – it went up in flames […] At the Isle of Wight, I’d planned to fly in by hot air balloon from Portsmouth, but on the day strong winds in the opposite direction scuppered that. I went on wearing face paint and a crazy costume, which was unusual then – and still is! In the rain I just couldn’t get the helmet to light, so I ended up swearing over the microphone. I was a God of hell fire without any flames, but people loved us.’⁵

1969: approx 150,000 people attended

Discussing festival number two, which came a couple of weeks after the iconic Woodstock, and was now located at Wootton Creek, Ray Foulk recalls ‘We decided to do it again the following year, but properly. Ronnie had got Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album for Christmas and argued that someone like Dylan would draw people to the island. He got Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman’s number from an underground magazine and called him. Dylan hadn’t performed since his motorbike crash in 1966 so we didn’t get far, but we kept calling. Grossman wanted Dylan to make a big comeback at the Woodstock festival, but the two had fallen out and weren’t speaking…

Meanwhile, I’d been getting on well with Grossman’s partner, Bert Block, and one Wednesday night he sent a telegram saying Dylan had agreed to play the Isle of Wight. It felt like winning the lottery. But he wanted me to fly to New York to sign contracts, and said: “Don’t forget the dollars.” We didn’t have any money, so we approached various monied people. The head of Screen Gems Europe understood how big Dylan was and agreed to invest in us. Suddenly we had a massive event that pulled in 150,000 people. George Harrison and Patti Boyd came to stay. John Lennon and Ringo arrived on the day. I’ll never forget watching Dylan playing tennis with three Beatles.’⁶

‘Dylan will top the bill at the Second Isle of Wight Festival of Music to be staged from August 29th through the 31st,’ reported Rolling Stone a few days before the festival took place. ‘He has not appeared in Britain since 1965, and he is still rarely seen even in the United States […] What Dylan is being paid for the engagement is being kept secret. It was reported that he stipulated that the Band and Richie Havens appear with him. Both acts have now signed contracts.’⁷